Holiday COVID Test Site Closures Left People Scrambling
MIAMI (CBS4) - COVID-19 cases are on the rise and the weekend test site closures left many people scrambling to find one open, leading to long lines at those that were like Tropical Park.
"I just wanted to make sure I don't have anything and I don't contaminate anyone else," said Christina Jimenez.
According to the Florida Department of Health from December 17 to 23, there were more than 125,000 new COVID cases statewide, Broward County accounting for more than 25,000 of those cases and Miami-Dade County making up 52,000. As cases continue to surge, so are the number of people getting.
"I'm very much scared, a lot of people are getting very sick lately, I'm going back to college in a couple of weeks, and I don't want classes to go back online," said Jimenez.
College students aren't the only ones worried about the rising COVID cases. Over the weekend multiple Florida-based cruise ships experienced outbreaks.
"We knew from the rumbling on the ship that there were a few crew members that tested positive for COVID, I believe there were a few passengers as well," said Carnival Freedom passenger Terry Jacobs.
Carnival Freedom was among the ships with positive COVID cases and passengers said it resulted in their cruise not being able to make stops at several of the scheduled locations.
"We weren't allowed to dock at Bonaire or Aruba so they got permission from the Dominican Republic for us to dock there," said Tina Brown.
According to a statement released Friday from Carnival Cruise Line, "Carnival Freedom is following all protocols and has a small number on board who are in isolation due to a positive COVID test. Our protocols anticipate this possibility and we implement them as necessary to protect the health and safety of our guests and crew. This is a vaccinated cruise and all guests were also tested before embarkation."
The ship returned to Miami as planned on Sunday.
"They did everything they could do, to make the trip enjoyable," added passenger Tom Robinson.
